


The Perfect Game of Subtlety

by Melodycard



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-12
Updated: 2014-10-12
Packaged: 2018-02-20 16:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2434904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melodycard/pseuds/Melodycard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroko schemes, uses his lack of presence to his advantage, and decides that what his two lights need is a little push in the right direction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perfect Game of Subtlety

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for silliness. OTZ

If Kuroko excelled in one area, it was observation. He’d always had a knack for picking apart small details of the big picture. He supposed part of that could be attributed to his near invisibility. For someone who often went under life's social radar, the more natural thing to do had always been to watch things unfold rather than directly participate in them.

It wasn’t as though no benefits had risen out of this shortcoming. Over the years, Kuroko had grown quite adept in the art of people watching—such that doing it was now practically second nature to him. It was intriguing the amount of information that could be plucked from someone just by looking at them closely. And lately, Kuroko couldn’t help but become hyperaware of a very interesting development budding between two people he knew.

“Kuroko, there you are! I was looking everywhere for you!”

Kuroko momentarily peeled his eyes away from the court and settled them on a quickly approaching Furihata. The blunet curbed the urge to enlighten his teammate that he had been sitting here the entire time. Contrary to Kagami’s accusations, Kuroko did actually find it rather tiring constantly having to remind people of his existence. While seeing his peers jump dramatically in fright made for nice entertainment, he would much rather not have to repeat himself like a broken record. “Furihata-kun.”

Furihata plopped down next to Kuroko on the bench, trying to even out his breathing. “Coach said that when our practice match starts, she’s not going to put you in until the second quarter,” he gasped. “Just thought you should know.”

Kuroko nodded, turning his attention back to the court. “I see. Thank you for telling me.”

Furihata leaned back, placed his palms flat on the bench, and stared curiously at Kuroko’s preoccupied face. “You seem like you’re concentrating hard. Something on your mind?”

Kuroko pulled his lips back in a contemplative manner. “Kagami-kun and Aomine-kun have been getting along awfully well recently, don’t you agree?”

Furihata dragged his eyes in the direction of the court. In the near distance, Aomine and Kagami were busy calling each other mocking names as they competed to see who could shoot more baskets during the warm-up session. He arched an eyebrow and looked back to Kuroko as if he’d just grown an extra head. “Really?!”

Kuroko continued to stare ahead thoughtfully. “Yes. Aomine-kun hasn’t been this happy since his early Teikou days. He looks incredibly relaxed.”

Furihata observed as on the court, Aomine had grabbed Kagami by the collar and was now growling something at the redhead which certainly didn’t seem very friendly in the least. “I don’t know about that; he just looks incredibly furious to me.”

“No, he’s less troubled than he used to be,” Kuroko said. “If you look closely, you can see how there are less wrinkles on his face. I reckon it’s thanks to Kagami-kun.”

Furihata frowned. If anything, the lines on Aomine’s face were becoming frighteningly more pronounced as he and Kagami began upgrading their verbal insults to the next level. “Um…don’t you mean the exact opposite?”

“Of course not. I highly recommend that you look harder.”  

Furihata appeared skeptical, but obeyed nonetheless. Setting his sights back on the court, the brunet squinted. He contracted his eyelids, letting them pull closer and closer together until his top and bottom lashes were practically fused as one. When Furihata finally allowed his eyes to snap back to their default states, he seemed no less confused than he was a few seconds ago. “Sorry…I don’t get it.”  

Kuroko sighed internally.

Clearly, Furihata was not looking hard enough. 

“What are you two chatting on about?” Hyuuga asked suddenly, abruptly inserting himself into the conversation.

“Ah, Hyuuga-senpai!" Furihata greeted. "Kuroko was just saying how Aomine and Kagami are getting along really well.”

Hyuuga frowned. Adjusting his glasses, Seirin’s captain turned and surveyed the scene in question. A very pissed-off Kagami had just finished chucking a basketball in the general direction of Aomine’s head. Aomine promptly returned the gesture with two basketballs. “I’m sorry, but are we talking about the same picture here? Because all I can see are two idiots trying to kill each other.”

“They are having a good time,” Kuroko insisted, much to Hyuuga and Furihata’s bemusement.

The discussion would have continued, if not for Riko’s call for everyone to gather on the court.

 

 

* * *

 

It was a practice match, but that didn’t make it less intense than an official one—especially when there were two powerhouses playing at full throttle. The second half of the third quarter was drawing close, and Kuroko was feeling the strain in all four of his limbs.

In spite of his fatigue, Kuroko raced along the court to the best of his ability, all while keeping a careful eye on his team members. When Izuki finally threw the ball his way, Kuroko was quick to initiate an ignite pass to deliver it to Kagami.

Everything was going according to plan—the ball was flying at its desired speed, and there were no obstructions hindering its flight. Or, at least, that was how it initially appeared to be. Unfortunately, Kagami made a slight miscalculation while he was reaching out to grab hold of the ball. As a result of the error, the redhead knocked it off course rather than caught it.

What happened next would be regrettable. The path of the ball had abruptly altered, and it was now speeding furiously towards an off-guard Aomine.  

Today would mark the first time everyone witnessed a misdirected ignite pass coming into contact with someone’s head.

There were silent gasps and swallowed screams. When the nightmare was finally over, Aomine was knocked out cold, using the gym floor as a makeshift bed.  

“Oh my god!” Kagami was the first to convert his shock into audible form. The redhead’s shout set off a chain reaction, and suddenly the entire gym was engulfed in a hyperactive frenzy.

“I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!” Predictably, Sakurai lunged into a perpetual stream of apologies, though the incident was in no way his fault.

“I-is he breathing?” Furihata asked. He peered down anxiously at Touou’s fallen ace. “You think the ball might have knocked the air out of his lungs?”

“Quick, somebody give him CPR!” Koganei exclaimed.

While everyone panicked and ran around in circles, Kuroko cautiously made his way closer to the crime scene. His concern was quickly escalating, but then he looked down and noticed that Aomine was in fact breathing normally. After another quick round of inspection, he confirmed that his former light was simply unconscious.

Kuroko turned to inform the crowd of this, but then his eyes flickered to a certain redhead and suddenly a very attractive idea occurred to him.

“Kagami-kun will do it.” Kuroko’s monotonous yet firm voice immediately silenced the chaos.

“Do it?” Furihata echoed.    

“CPR.”

“Say what?!” Kagami snapped his head to Kuroko, horrified.

“Cardiopulmonary resuscitation. When you do mouth-to-mouth—”

“—I _know_ what CPR is!” Kagami snapped. “I’m asking why you just volunteered me without my consent!”

“I believe it’s fair considering you are the one at fault,” Kuroko replied evenly.

“I‘m the one at faul—it was _your_ ignite pass!”

“Yes, but if you had been paying better attention and caught it properly, it wouldn’t have struck Aomine-kun,” Kuroko said matter-of-factly.

“But…”

“Well, that’s true,” Imayoshi suddenly chipped in. “He has a point.”

Kagami looked around the gym desperately. “Wait, no! Why can’t someone else do it?”

“Kagami-kun, this is a very serious situation.” The tone Kuroko was using was the same kind someone might use when explaining a new concept to a child. “Someone’s life is at stake here and we have no time to spare.”

“But you can’t just…”

“Someone’s life, Kagami-kun.”

Kuroko watched in triumph as Kagami slumped his shoulders in reluctant resignation. Muttering under his breath, the redhead dragged himself over to the unconscious Aomine. All eyes followed Kagami as he dropped down next to his rival.

The room grew deathly quiet.

There was an extended moment of hesitation on Kagami’s part and some fidgeting before he positioned his face over Aomine’s and leaned down.

Kuroko angled his neck to get a better view. This was, after all, a historical moment in the making.

However, just when the kiss of life was about to occur, Aomine stirred and snapped his eyes open.

Surprise dawned hard on both aces. Aomine, in particular, was incredibly shocked, given how he had just been awoken from a forced slumber. The blunet shot up quickly, neglecting the fact that Kagami was hovering directly in his face.

Needless to say, with his abrupt choice of movement, he ended up head-butting the redhead (and himself) to unconsciousness.  

It was a simultaneous knockout.

The gym erupted with chaotic screams once more, only doubled in volume this time because now there were two aces out cold instead of one.

From his corner of composure, Kuroko stood motionless, staring in disappointment.

 _Maybe next time_.

 

* * *

 

“Whoever invented the atrocity that is math needs to be punished!” Kagami growled, scrubbing his eraser raw against his notebook. If he scrubbed any harder, he was going to wear a hole into the paper.

Aomine snickered from his side of the table. “I never knew the Bakagami would have such a big vocabulary.”

“Trust me, it only sounds big to you because you’re lacking something very important called the brain,” Kagami retorted.

“I’m not the one who scored 10 points on his last math test,” Aomine said.

Kagami sputtered and dropped his pencil. “H-How did you know that?!” he exclaimed.

Kuroko kept his eyes on his paper as his light turned around violently and fixed him with what was undoubtedly a glare. “Kuroko, did you tell him?!”

Kuroko calmly finished writing down his answer to his 6th math problem. Afterwards, he lifted his paper slightly to gauge the accuracy of his calculations. “I don’t see the big deal, Kagami-kun.”

“Seriously, that’s a new level of low. How did you make it to high school with those grades?” Aomine deadpanned.

“Like you’re one to talk! I don’t see you on the honor roll!” Kagami yelled.

Aomine snorted. “No, but at least I don’t get 10 points on my exams.”

“Arrgh!” Kagami clutched his head in what Kuroko thought was complete over theatrics. “Kuroko you sadistic bastard, how could you tell him?! He’s never going to let me hear the end of it!”

“It wasn’t my intention to be spiteful. We were having a conversation about you and the topic just came up,” Kuroko said. Flattening his paper back down, he started work on his 7th problem.

“Conversation? You mean to say you talk about me with him? Behind my back?!”

“There’s no need to get so defensive. Aomine-kun just asks about you from time to time; it’s nothing out of the ordinary,” Kuroko said, feeling a headache incoming. The three of them had only been occupying this family restaurant for a little less than an hour, and already Kuroko was starting to doubt that any progress in finishing their homework would be made. With exams right around the corner, this was hardly the ideal outlook.  

“But why would he—“ Kagami suddenly paused, his anger dissipating some. “Wait, he…asks about me? Like, on non-basketball related stuff?”

At the question, Kuroko drew his attention away from his homework and glanced up. He was met with Kagami’s rather curious face, and when he looked over to Aomine, he noticed that the Touou ace looked the tiniest bit tense as he sipped slowly on his drink.

Kuroko felt the corners of his lips twitch.

“Yes. He asks about you quite often, actually. To the extent where I’m certain he constantly worries over you.”

Kuroko’s declaration was immediately rewarded by a vehement protest from Aomine. “What the hell are you on about, Tetsu? I don’t worry over that idiot.”

“Is that so? Because lately, the bulk of all our conversations have been about Kagami-kun. I’m starting to feel like your proxy for getting information about him. ”

Aomine recoiled in defense. “That is not true. Stop making stuff up.”

“I’m not making anything up. I’m just saying it like it is,” Kuroko replied coolly.

Kagami stayed quiet through all this, but Kuroko could see the color of his cheeks beginning to stray from its neutral hue out of the corner of his eye. The redhead tried unsuccessfully to look distracted as he took heavy sips from his own drink.

“There’s no need to deny it,” Kuroko continued, enjoying their reactions immensely. “I’m certain Kagami-kun worries about you as well. Just to say for the record, he didn’t put up much of a resistance when I volunteered him to perform resuscitation on you last week.”

This comment seemed to snap Kagami out of his silence, and the redhead groaned, sinking his forehead down on the table. “Kuroko, please don’t bring up how I was about to suck face with Ahomine. Just thinking about that makes me want to jump off a cliff.”

Aomine emitted a noise which indicated he had taken offense. “Excuse you very much. You should be honored you had the chance to even get so close to my face. There are people who would sacrifice a limb for the opportunity.”

“Yeah well, more power to them because I want no part of it,” Kagami said dryly.

“As if you’re ever going to be good enough to take part in it anyway,” said Aomine.

“Well you know what? I feel sorry for those who are!” Kagami spat back. “Who in their right mind would want their lips anywhere near yours?”

“I’m throwing that question right back at you, Bakagami. With those eyebrows of yours, they’d have to have really bad taste.”

Kuroko stared vacantly at his squabbling lights. These days, he wasn’t sure if he was dealing with two grown teenagers or two immature children.

Pushing his chair out, the phantom player stood up. “I’m going to order another shake,” he announced. He paused a bit before adding: “By the way, you’ve been drinking from each other’s cups. That’s essentially an indirect kiss right there.”

Frankly, Kuroko was amazed that they hadn’t realized he’d swapped their drinks.

The perks of being the invisible man, he supposed.

With a slight bounce to his steps, Kuroko sauntered away. They may not be making much progress with homework or studying, but the exaggerated sounds of Aomine and Kagami gagging in sync were music to his ears.

 

* * *

 

During the train ride home, Aomine and Kagami were vocally silent, but Kuroko could hear the unspoken loudness of their thoughts.

He didn’t miss how Kagami would sneak glances at Aomine when he was sure Aomine wasn’t looking, or how Aomine would subtly move his gaze away from the advertisements to Kagami every time Kagami became preoccupied with something out the window.

Kuroko couldn’t remember when exactly this had become routine amongst the three of them—this pattern which consisted of him watching Aomine and Kagami watch each other. All he knew was that it had gone on for too long a time.

Kuroko wasn’t a person of short patience, but the constant cycles of denial Aomine and Kagami insisted on dancing around were enough to drive the most patient person insane.

The phantom player sucked in a tired breath, as he was _again_ forced to witness Kagami and Aomine fidgeting awkwardly as the force of the train braking sent them colliding against each other in their seats. The two aces immediately jerked away from one another as soon as the train locked into motion again.

_This was a romance that was going to forever remain at the primary-school level._

 

* * *

 

“Kuroko, can you give this back to Ahomine?”

There was an extremely irritated expression plastered on Kagami’s face as he held the said item out to Kuroko.

Kuroko looked down at the gravure magazine secured in Kagami’s grip. It was noticeably crumpled.

Aomine always took great care of his magazines, but apparently Kagami wasn’t interested in extending the same kind of care.  

Kuroko couldn’t resist the opportunity to poke fun. “Kagami-kun, I didn’t know you shared the same hobbies as Aomine-kun. How shocking.”

“Shut up, you know I don’t. This got mixed in with my studying materials yesterday at the restaurant,” Kagami grumbled, thrusting the booklet at Kuroko’s chest.

Kuroko took the magazine from Kagami and looked at it in interest. Now that he was actually holding it and seeing it up close, it seemed even more roughened up than he’d originally perceived it to be. “You seem upset.”  

“Well how would _you_ feel if you found a perverted magazine sandwiched between your textbooks?” Kagami said.

Kuroko didn’t need to make a conscious effort to decipher the underlying meaning behind Kagami’s words. “Are you sure you’re not just angry over the fact that the magazine belongs to Aomine-kun?”

Kagami stumbled over his tongue in search for a way to protest. “I don’t care what he looks at during his free time! I just don’t want his things randomly showing up in my stuff!”

Kagami, Kuroko thought, was going to need to learn to become a much better liar than that if he ever wanted to be convincing.

“Maybe if Kagami-kun wasn’t such a coward, Aomine-kun would have something else better to look at besides his magazines,” Kuroko said.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

 

* * *

 

“It’s official. My brain is dead,” Kagami griped, following Kuroko with unsteady steps.

“At the very least, you’ve made it through all your tests. Now all that’s left is hope you’ve passed them,” Kuroko replied.

Kuroko himself was also feeling the side-effects of finally plowing through the last day of exams week. Though unlike Kagami, he fared much better with keeping his exhaustion internal.       

“So exactly where are we meeting Kise again? We’ve been walking for years!”

“Kagami-kun, it’s only been 20 minutes. And we’re meeting at Fountain Park. We went over this.”

Kuroko rolled his neck back to glance at Kagami. To be fair, Kagami really did look as if he’d been walking for years. The redhead was swaying on his feet like a leaf, and for a moment Kuroko was worried that Kagami was going to collapse right then and there. “On another note, I’m surprised you agreed to come,” he said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re now on friendly terms with Kise-kun.”

“Tch. I’m only in it for the free food,” said Kagami. “I’ve just gone through exam hell and I’m in no mood to cook.”

Shrugging, Kuroko continued to walk. It wasn’t until he eventually caught sight of a familiar landmark that he paused to review the surroundings. Pulling out his phone, Kuroko checked the text Kise had sent him the previous night. “I believe we’re here, Kagami-kun. There should be a fountain around this area.”

There was no reply.

Kuroko snapped his phone shut and looked up. “Kagami-kun?”

The phantom player spotted his light wobbling towards a random direction, paying no mind to where he was heading at all. Apparently, the exams were more of a critical hit to Kagami’s basketball-track mind than he initially thought. “Kagami-kun, be careful. That’s…”

The warning left his mouth too late. Kagami hissed out a string of unintelligible curses as he toppled head-first into the fountain.

Quickly slipping his phone back inside his pocket, Kuroko trotted over to the redhead. “Kagami-kun, are you all right?”

Kagami was flailing about in the water, attracting all kinds of attention from onlookers. “Kuroko, you could have warned me earlier!” he exclaimed, struggling to sit himself upright.

“My apologies. I would think that you’d notice something as large as a fountain.”           

“Kurokocchi!”

The sudden call of a familiar voice cut their conversation short. Kuroko lifted his head in time to spot a bubbly blond speed-walking towards them. Kise was sporting the widest grin on his face as he approached the pair, swinging his arm to and fro in greeting.

“Kise-kun…” Kuroko said, before trailing his eyes to the blond’s unexpected accompanier. “…Aomine-kun, I didn’t know you would be coming as well.”

Kuroko gave Aomine an appraising stare. His former light looked incredibly disoriented and his appearance gave off the impression that he didn’t know what he was even doing here himself. He was dressed in the Touou gym attire, and the duffel bag slung over his shoulder was left unzipped. Kuroko could see Aomine’s school uniform and several books peeking out over the opening unceremoniously.

At Kuroko’s comment, Aomine scowled and jabbed a thumb in Kise’s direction. “I wasn’t! This guy just barged into our locker room and dragged me here right after practice.”

“Oh c’mon Aominecchi, this will be fun! Let’s all de-stress from exams!” Kise said.

“Unlike all of you, my exams ended last week,” said Aomine. “You’re a week too late.”

Kise pouted. “It’s never too late to de-stress. And how can anyone say no to a karaoke party?” The blond said, casually swiveling his gaze from Aomine to the fountain in front of him. Once he did, a loud shriek escaped him and Kise jumped backwards in surprise. “K-Kagamicchi! What are you doing in the fountain?!”

“I’ve been sitting here for the past ten minutes and you just now noticed?” Kagami grumbled.

Aomine snickered. “So have you decided to take up swimming instead because you can’t succeed in basketball?”

“As if,” Kagami snarled. With some difficulty, he shifted himself upright and climbed out of the water. “Screw this, I’m going home.”

“EH?! But I thought you said you were joining us!” Kise exclaimed.

“If you haven’t noticed, I just fell into a fountain.”

“How the hell did you end up in there anyway?” Aomine asked, the mirth still lingering on his voice.

“That’s none of your business,” said Kagami.

Kise smacked his lips in disappointment. “Well…I guess you can’t go walking around looking like that,” he said, gesturing towards Kagami’s saturated state.

Kuroko hummed thoughtfully, assessing the situation. “Actually, Kagami-kun just needs a change of clothes. I think I can get him one.”

Kise shot Kuroko a skeptical glance. “Uhm…no offense, Kurokocchi, but I’m pretty sure your clothes are a bit too…small for him,” he said, weighing Kuroko and Kagami’s size difference with his eyes.

“I never said anything about _my_ clothes, Kise-kun.”

 

* * *

 

“Ah.” Kise circled around Kagami, evaluating him like how he would a model. “It doesn’t look half bad on you.” He scrutinized over the redhead’s appearance with approval. “It looks great, actually!”  

Kagami shifted uneasily outside the public restroom, his lips pulled into a taunt line. He looked the most self-conscious Kuroko had ever seen him, which was saying a lot because rarely was Kagami the type to fret over his physical appearance. The Touou uniform couldn’t be more of a natural fit, but at the moment, Kagami looked as if he was slowly having the air squeezed out of his lungs by the outfit. It made for quite the amusing sight.    

“Aominecchi, what do you think?”

Kuroko turned to Aomine when Kise voiced the question. Kuroko barely caught Aomine flinching and snapping his jaw shut from what he assumed must have been a gaping position.    

“I…what do I think?” Aomine echoed, his voice coming out dry. Kuroko could see the imaginary wheels in Aomine’s head rotating frantically for an excuse. “...I…think it looks much better on me, that’s what.”

Had Kuroko been the type to wear his emotions on his sleeve, he would have rolled his eyes now. But it wouldn’t have mattered in this case, because Kise eventually did it in his place.

“Aominecchi, please,” Kise sighed in exasperation. He turned back to Kagami and tilted his head to evaluate the other once more. “It’s kind of weird how perfectly it suits you, but it does! In fact, it kind of looks like…” Kise trailed off, his face suddenly taking on a mischievous air.    

“…Like what?” Kagami asked, shrinking back.

Kise slapped a palm to his mouth. He was doing the worst job hiding his growing grin. “Ehhh…should I say it?” he said, darting his eyes to Aomine and then back to Kagami again.

If there was one thing Kuroko knew Kagami hated, it was having something tempting being dangled right in his face.

“If you have something to say, just say it,” the redhead growled.

Kise held back a stifled giggle, letting his hand slowly slip down from his mouth. “…It’s...it's like Aominecchi is marking his territory.”

Kuroko heard Aomine’s breath hitch irregularly. In contrast, Kagami only squinted in confusion. “Huh?”

Unable to contain himself any longer due to Kagami's clueless reaction, Kise burst into full-out laughter.

Kuroko almost felt compelled to join him.

 

* * *

 

“I took pictures of Kagami-kun during our karaoke night. I don’t mind sending you copies.”

Kuroko kept his voice in its usual deadpan, but he couldn’t stop his amusement from crackling to life as Aomine did an impressive spit-take. He waited patiently for the taller boy to calm down from his coughing fit, and when he finally did, Aomine turned to eye him incredulously.

“…What?” The water bottle in Aomine’s grip was being squeezed unnecessarily hard.

“Pictures,” Kuroko replied. “Of Kagami-kun.”

“Yeah, I heard what you said about that first part. I was referring to the second thing.”

“Well, since I have the pictures anyway, I thought I could be considerate and forward them to you as well.”

“And why the hell would I want them?” Aomine said, his voice rising in volume.

Kuroko feigned innocence. “I apologize, but were you not staring at Kagami-kun in your clothes the entire night? You seemed like you were enjoying the sight.”

Now, Aomine seemed legitimately appalled. “How could you even suggest that?”

“I witnessed it with my own eyes,” Kuroko replied.

“You should get those eyes checked,” said Aomine.

Kuroko arched an eyebrow. “Even though I clearly saw you ogling him, distracted to the point that you actually spilled punch all over yourself three songs in? You haven’t forgotten, right?”

An indecipherable noise came from Aomine’s throat, and it took a bit of effort for Kuroko not to succumb to the smile pushing behind his lips. Since his entrance into Seirin, teasing Kagami had been so entertaining that Kuroko had almost forgotten how amusing it was to do the same to Aomine. For a brief moment, Kuroko saw himself living his Teikou days again.  

“That has nothing to do with it! I wasn’t staring at him, and if you think I was, you probably need glasses,” Aomine said, after recovering from his lack of speech.  

“What’s this about glasses?” Kagami interrupted from behind them. The redhead’s unannounced presence caused Aomine to jolt upwards in surprise.

Kuroko, on the other hand, merely swiveled around in his seat to greet his light. “Hello, Kagami-kun.”

Kagami grunted, propping the basketball he was previously holding up on his index finger. “You still haven’t answered me. Is one of you getting glasses?”

“No,” Kuroko said, choosing not to elaborate. He stood up, snatched the spinning ball from Kagami and started to walk towards the hoop. As he did this, he shot Aomine a fleeting look. “I’ll send you the pictures, Aomine-kun. Just make sure you don’t use them for too impure of a purpose.”

Aomine bristled defensively. “Tetsu, I swear, the things that come out of your mouth—“

“What pictures? Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on here?” Kagami asked.

“Bakagami, shut up,” said Aomine.

 

* * *

 

The score was 85 to 88, and Kuroko was beyond exhausted. Today was turning out to be another one of those days where he had to ask himself why he’d chosen to dedicate himself to such a brutal sport in the first place. His stamina was anything but stellar, and as such, it was obviously not a good match with an activity which required running back and forth nonstop.

_When did practice matches get so brutal anyway?_

Kuroko stepped onto the wing area of the court just as Koganei decided to throw the ball in his direction. In the time lapse before the ball could reach him, Kuroko did a swift survey of his surrounding area. Once he saw that Hyuuga was free, he immediately turned his palm outwards to carry out his signature pass. The ball easily bounced off his palm and made a beeline towards Hyuuga.

However, it seemed that today was just not Kuroko’s day.

It was a shame, because if the ball had successfully reached Hyuuga, Seirin would have probably tied Touou’s score. But it didn’t, because Aomine, with his superhuman reflexes, reacted in time to stir the ball off its original course.

And that was where everything went downhill.

When the ricocheted ball zipped unexpectedly his way, Kagami froze like a deer in headlights. There were a few shouts of warning, but they were overdue. The ball crashed into Kagami’s head, sending him crumbling to the floor without an ounce of sympathy.

Kuroko stood motionless, wondering just where he had witnessed this sort of scene before. He was still wondering this as everyone started forming a tight, anxious circle around Kagami to determine his state of health.  

_Oh, right. The last time Seirin had a practice game with Touou._

“Guys, he’s breathing!” Koganei shouted above the restless murmurs. “He’s alive! It’s all going to be okay!”

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Sakurai cried.

“Oh for the love of—can you just STOP apologizing for stuff you're obviously not responsible for?!” Wakatmatsu roared.

“I’m sorry!”

“Um…shouldn't we take him to the nurse? I think that bump on his head is starting to swell,” Furihata said.

Well. If life was going to give him déjà vu, Kuroko reckoned he might as well go with the flow. Stepping beside Furihata, the phantom player announced:  

“Aomine-kun will do it.”

 

* * *

 

“Technically this is all your fault, Tetsu.”

“I disagree. It was you who landed the death blow.”

The nurse’s office was, ironically, very lacking of a nurse. The three boys had no choice but to loiter around idly for her return.

Aomine glared at Kuroko. “Which reminds me—that ignite pass of yours almost killed me too—it almost killed us both.”

Now that Kuroko reflected upon it, the mirroring of the two incidents was in fact rather humorous. If Kuroko was previously convinced that his lights were two peas in a pod, he was now more so than ever.

Which brought him to this next point: he couldn’t for the life of him fathom why these two people who had all the odds in their favor were so blatantly trying to ruin everything by being so avoidant.

“Aomine-kun,” he said, watching the way Aomine’s eyes traced over the lines of Kagami’s relaxed, unconscious face. Once upon a time, Kuroko would have found the gesture cute, but now it was simply making him feel restless and impatient.  

“Yeah?”

“Kiss him.”

Kuroko was thankful that between Kagami and Aomine, Aomine was the one less likely to react in an overblown fashion. Had it been Kagami, the redhead would have probably fallen backwards from his chair and would now be choking and stammering nonsense. But since this was Aomine, the blunet simply looked at Kuroko with a slackened jaw and croaked, “Did you just—“

“Yes.”

“You’re—”

“Telling you to do something you’ve wanted to do for months now. Or am I wrong?” Kuroko interrupted. "This has gone on for too long, wouldn't you agree?"  

Aomine opened his mouth, and then closed it. He was clearly taken-aback by Kuroko’s bluntness. He seemed about to refute everything, but Kuroko quickly shot him an I-wasn’t-born-yesterday stare. The two of them wound up engaging in a brief staring contest, from which Aomine was the one to ultimately tear his eyes away. “You know, even back in junior high, I’ve always been creeped out by how you always see through people,” Aomine grumbled.

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Aomine frowned. “You’re having fun with this, aren’t you Tetsu?”

“On the contrary, I’ve started to find it quite exasperating,” Kuroko replied. “I’m surprised with you, Aomine-kun. You’re normally the type to dive in and just get what you want.”

“This isn’t like everything else,” Aomine said. “It’s not something I could—want to just take.”

“So you're saying you don’t want to kiss him?” Kuroko deadpanned.

Aomine made a face. “I didn’t say that.”

“Then this is your best opportunity.”

“There’s no point if he’s not awake,” Aomine muttered. “And…”

Kuroko arched an eyebrow. “…And?”

Aomine sunk deeper against his chair. “…And even if he was awake, what’s to say I won’t get a punch in the face for attempting something like that?”

Kuroko could feel the gallon of frustration on his shoulders gradually tipping over. “Aomine-kun. I pegged you as the less dense one between you and Kagami-kun, but it seems I’ll have to rework that opinion.”

Aomine wrinkled his brow. “What do you mean by that?”

“Kagami-kun isn’t good with subtlety,” Kuroko said. He scooted his chair back. “If you’re ever going to make any progress, you’re going to need to be blunt about it.”

“I’m not that eager to die, Tetsu.” Then, upon noticing that Kuroko had stood from his seat, Aomine lifted his head in confusion. “You’re leaving?”

“There’s no need for all two of us to be here,” Kuroko said, sauntering over to the entrance to the room. The phantom player’s eyes flickered knowingly at the bed. “And it seems that my job here is already done.”

Aomine looked after him in bemusement. “What job?”

Turning the knob of the door, Kuroko tilted his head back to cast a quick glance at his lights just before he completely walked out, “You can stop feigning sleep now, Kagami-kun. I saw your fingers twitch just now.”

The phantom player enjoyed the shocked intake of air on Aomine’s part as he closed the door behind him.    

Everything was then completely quiet.

Kuroko could feel the heavy tension slipping through the cracks of the door. He leaned against it, his ears straining to pick up any whiffs of sound. It wasn’t until the silence had gone beyond the breaking point that a soft murmur finally slipped from the other side.    

“How long were you awake?” The voice obviously belonged to Aomine, though it was uncharacteristically soft coming from the Touou ace.

Kagami mumbled something disjointed. “…When you were arguing over who killed me.”

“When we were—” Kuroko heard Aomine’s voice snap just slightly. “So you were eavesdropping the entire time?!”

“Not on purpose! You two just started talking and I didn’t know if it’d be a good time for me to wake.”

“Well _this_ is definitely not a good time.”

“It wasn't my choice, blame it on Kuroko.”

“Just to make sure. You heard us…you heard us talk about…about...”

“…I did.”

There came the sharp squeak of a chair, which Kuroko assumed was Aomine getting up.

“Oh god, this can’t be happening. Somebody pinch me, I must be having a nightmare.”

“…It's not like I have a problem with it.”

Kuroko had to concentrate extra hard to make out what Kagami had mumbled. And by the sounds of it, Aomine had trouble catching it as well.

“…Say that again?”

“I said I don’t have a problem with it.”

“You…don’t…”

“You heard me.”

"Uh...by not having a problem with it, you mean you...towards me, you feel..."

"What else could it be?"

“So you’re saying I— _we_ can…”

“If you don't quit making me repeat myself, I'm going to change my mind!"

Following Kagami’s flustered shout, there was an immediate lapse back into silence.

The bout of stillness persisted for a few long minutes, and then Kuroko picked up sounds of faint movement going on again. He switched his ears on higher alert, trying to garner some insight on what could be happening where he couldn’t see. Though there was really no need because the answer soon became clear.  

“…Ow! Not so hard, I _just_ had a concussion! And are you trying to chew my mouth off?”

“Oh, sorry. Try again?”

“…All that talk but you suck at this after all.”

“You're full of complaints. Just wait till I make you eat those words. Literally.”  

When the door to the nurse’s office slowly slid open a little while later, Aomine and Kagami both walked out with their faces flushed and their hair slightly disheveled. The two of them didn’t talk as they headed back towards the gym, but they were walking closer next to one another than they normally would, and the awkward wall of tension that’d been building between them for ages was no longer present.     

From his secluded corner, Kuroko felt the weight he'd been holding for months finally leave his chest, and a smile gradually enveloped his lips.

_Congratulations. Took you two long enough._


End file.
